Knock Out Rose

I have several double pink and double red knock out roses. They have been in for about two years (third summer) and are growing well. My question is how to dead head them without stopping them from blooming? The first flowers are numerous and well formed, but repeat flowering is sparce. I know the sales pitch says no dead heading, but I do not like the dead pods and so prefer to deadhead.

A few times a week I trim the dead ones off. As soon as a few of a flower's petals start turning brown, off it goes. I think it's easier to do more often because they are easier to see when the old petals are still there. Once all the petals fall, the hips are hard to see. Unless you accidentally cut the unopened buds, they should keep blooming. If left alone, they seem to bloom more in spurts than continually. I think that sales pitch is aimed at people who want landscaping but don't really enjoy spending much time messing with plants, just don't have the time to spend, or have other tasks using their time which are more necessary. This is definitely a good plant for all.

I have a multi color pink orange knockout roses ,and deadhead it all summer long and I had lots of blooms through out.Also my yellow knockout is giving me blooms even in fall weather now ,I also deadhead this one to.Keep deadheading it works well

I would do what the other do and deadhead as the flowers fade, all plants use up a lot of energy to make flowers then continue their cycle of making seed heads /seeds to continue their reproduction. In the wild there is only animal / birds ect that can help with the eating of flowers and seed-heads so we, the gardeners must help trick the plants into thinking they have NOT yet made seeds because we cut off the flowers before seeds are formed. By dead heading, we are telling the plant to get on and produce more flowers, I think with Roses especially, the removal of faded flowers rejuvenate the plants and even though you may cut away most of the flowers that have faded, the plant will make more new buds within a couple of weeks.
I like to give my roses a handful of Rose feed start of season, mid season too IF they are prolific bloomers, and end of summer so they get a chance to rejuvenate there root system and build up new energy for the next season.
Hope all the others and this help you understand how the plants work and also why it is our job to help encourage this continual flowering season.
Good Luck. Weenel.

There should be a GUIDELINE regarding hight and spread (width) on the labels when you bought them, failing that, get along to the garden store and look for the same plant, take note of info on these labels, I've had to do that on many occasions when been giver plants as gift or the labels go brittle with hot / cold weather, I always ask the people please don't steel the labels, I hate getting home only to find someone has removed the labels.

I cant give you real hight, spread of the roses you have as we don't have them here under the name Knock Out Roses, BUT, we may have them under another name, maybe a form of climber, ground cover ect, but roses are Roses and all need the same treatment regarding care with the exception of pruning, that is different between climbing, bush, weeping, shrub, but once you learn to deadhead a rose properly, the different type of pruning is down to time, how low to make the cut, or how if any, ways to support/ tie into the frames of choice, regarding your plants, like all Roses, soil, feeding, light, temp etc will have a say in how your Roses grow but as a rough guide, I would allow for 6 feet or more after about 3 years and the same wide, however IF your plants go beyond the space you have or want, train them onto a frame or prune any unwanted stems to the hight desired but, as always, keep an eye on there growth so you know for future years how they grow or what is stopping the growth.
Hope this give you some tips and guidelines to get you going, so enjoy and good luck for next spring when they will burst into bud again.
WeeNel.

Forgot to say before, roses love Bananas. Banana peels are one thing we don't put in the compost because they go directly at the base of roses. Bury it if you can get your hand in there, if not, just let it melt into the ground at the base, which it will do in a few days, or put it in the blender with a little water if you prefer that method, invisible almost instantly. Bananas have a TON of potassium (the middle number in fertilizer) and from what I've seen over the years, gramma was totally right about this advice. I love to find rotten bananas on clearance and give those to the roses (the insides too) when the insides are too far gone to make banana bread.